Reset Leadership Retreat
And he certainly did not disappoint! I'm just in amazement at the Father's faithfulness!
Back in January 2023, Danielle and I began a two-year course at Ellel called Explore. We originally signed up for Explore to care and minister to other people better. Little did we realize that God was going to personally care for us so much in this journey.
During the week at Reset, I took time to go over all my notes from each of the Explore sessions. During the very first session in January 2023, I made a small note that simply said "Trust him!". At the time, I didn't know exactly what I was reminded of to trust. Was this just to trust God in the general sense, or was it in a specific area?
By the end of the first weekend, I felt I was to intentionally trust God with the process that Danielle and I had just begun with the Explore School. We also just started to regularly practice Sabbath, to take a full 24 hours off each week. I also felt God was asking me to reduce my ministry outside of the church and our denomination association to zero.
As I prayed and reflected at Reset last week, I was able to see just how God has used the past two years, as well as my Sabbatical, to strengthen my faith, bring healing in different areas of my life, and to hear God speaking so clearly.
In January 2023, I was heading for a burnout. I could slowly feel it coming. It wasn't coming because I was working ridiculous amounts of hours. It wasn't coming because I wasn't taking care of myself.
It was coming because the quiet lies whispered by my spiritual enemy were starting to feel like truth in my spirit.
That's how spiritual warfare works. Our enemy looks at our insecurities. He looks at our hurts and disappointments. He looks at the sins we've committed and the sins done against us. He takes all that information and twists it into lies that sound perfectly true.
My Explore journey has given me such sweet time with the Holy Spirit to deep dive into the enemy's lies, to be set free from them. My Sabbatical has allowed me to rest in the truth of the Father's love and identity he has given me.
As I was praying at Reset, I asked God to give me a word or a sense of what He wanted to do with all that he has done in my life these past two and a half years.
His response was immediate and so clear! "Love them and bring them to me."
This affirmed exactly what I had been journaling about throughout my Sabbatical.
Way back in 2018, I was taking a leadership course called CREST. In it, we were encouraged to put together a life purpose, a short statement reminding us what God has created us for. I felt this statement needed to be "career neutral", in other words, it wasn't dependent on what I did for a living.
If I were a pastor, it would fit. In my role as husband, father, friend, or brother, it would fit. If I worked in any other profession or if I were sick in the hospital, the purpose statement could still be lived out. After lots of work, prayer, and going over it with Danielle, I put together:
To be a spiritual father to many, having a gospel impact in this generation for generations to come.
Fast forward back to Reset. I was going over this statement, asking God if it was still how he wanted me to think like this. That's when "Love them and bring them to me" came.
I was also reminded of two different men in the Bible: Paul and David.
Paul was a Jewish religious leader who became a follower of Jesus and spiritually mentored others in the ways of Jesus.
David was the King of Israel. He was known as a man of war. He prayed on behalf of his family and his nation.
As I'm getting more and more excited about getting back into ministry at church, I see glimpses on how God wants to guide me as a serve: I'll be a spiritual father like Paul, and I'll be a faithful warrior like David, to see the Gospel have a lasting impact in people's lives. All done through the loving healing of our Father!
I don't have all the details of this worked out... and honestly, that's not the goal. Reset was a blessed time of seeing the hand of the Father at work in my life and being reminded of this faithfulness to continue this amazing journey.
I will keep on trusting him!
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